Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

Album Review

Andres Thor: Relocate

Read "Relocate" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
September 17, 2026

Icelandic guitarist Andres Thor has spent the better part of two decades quietly building a catalog that swings between Nordic chamber-jazz and something closer to countrified twang, and on Relocate the splits the difference again, this time with a jazz trio featuring French bassist Nico Moreaux and Icelandic drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen. The record follows the trio's 2022 debut, Hereby on Losen Records. Nine tracks, forty minutes, not a wasted motion--this is a band that has clearly done its homework ...

Radio & Podcasts

Andy Sheppard, Jonathan Karrant, Eva Cassidy, Wadada Leo Smith

by Cheryl K.
September 17, 2026

During this week's two-hour program of jazz and improvised music--pianists/composers Senri Oe, Kelly Green, and Sullivan Fortner; saxophonists Andy Sheppard and Linda Sikhakhane; vocalists Jonathan Karrant, Eva Cassidy, and Brigitte Fontaine; guitarist Aaron Quinn's Sunchoke; and the duo David / David.Playlist Rare Silk “Storm" from American Eyes (Palo Alto) 5:33 Senri Oe “Pure Scars" from Homework (PND) 5:19 Yelena Eckemoff “Gamla Stan" from Rosendals Garden (L&H Productions) 9:35 Aaron Quinn's Sunchoke “Sunchoke" from To Be Held (Endectomorph ) ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jalen Baker, Matt Wilson's Good Trouble, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Charles Tolliver and more

by Benjamin Boddie
September 17, 2026

Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by Jalen Baker, Matt Wilson's Good Trouble, Mike Catalano, Allan Harris, Dave Bass, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Yainer Horta, Joey Calveiro, The Las Vegas Boneheads, Douye, Charles Tolliver, Greg Chako, Linda Sikhakhane, Technocats, Geof Bradfield, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall, NicoleYvette, Kelly Green, Dwayne Dolphin, Reid Hoyson Project, Visions Jazz Ensemble, Takashi Matsunaga, WDR Big Band, Ulysses Owens Jr. & Generation Y, Elias Haslanger, Helen Sung Big Band, Somi, Carmen Lundy, Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer, Dafnis ...

Radio & Podcasts

Taking the Temperature of Jazz in 2026

by Patrick Burnette
September 17, 2026

The boys are sticking to recent releases for the foreseeable future and this episode, inasmuch as it has a discernible theme, is about how different jazz musicians are trying to reach audiences in 2026. Feel free to listen, though, if you are against cerning in any form.Playlist Discussion of Tigran Hamasyan's album Manifeste (Naive) 6:37 Discussion of Lakecia Benjamin's album We Dream (Artwork) 21:57 Discussion of Ben Wolfe's album Any Time After Now (Resident Arts) 40:21 Discussion of ...

Paul's Picks

New York City Jazz Performance Preview: Fall 2026

by Paul Reynolds
September 16, 2026

New York season includes the first fall programs from two recently opened midtown clubs--The Pocket and Jazzcultural and higher-profile shows for fine emerging performers such as singer Ekep Nkwelle and pianist/arranger Joe Block. The preeminent departure is that of Wynton Marsalis who, after 30 years in the job, will lead his last season as the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Consequently, 2026-27 sees The House That Jazz Built programming an even bigger dose of Marsalisiana than ...

Live Review

Laura Macdonald Quartet at Caol Ila Islay Jazz Festival

by Mark McKergow
September 16, 2026

Laura Macdonald QuartetCaol Ila Islay Jazz Festival Islay, Scotland September 12, 2026 Ayrshire-born and Berklee-educated saxophonist, composer and educator Laura Macdonald has been a central figure in Scottish jazz for a quarter century. She first performed at the Islay festival in 2000, has released four albums and was named Best Scottish Jazz Performer in 2021. In 2022, she became the first female saxophone lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and later stepped into the role ...

Interview

An Uplifting Tragedy: Everybody Digs Bill Evans

by Peter Jones
September 16, 2026

In July 1961, 25-year-old bassist Scott LaFaro was killed in a car accident in upstate New York. Four days earlier he had accompanied Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival, and a few days before that, he had made the legendary Village Vanguard live recordings with the Bill Evans Trio Trio that were released as Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. Both albums are acknowledged classics of the jazz trio genre. On learning of Scott's ...

Album Review

Rich Halley 4: A Distant Land

Read "A Distant Land" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 16, 2026

Saxophonist Rich Halley's music has, from the very beginning, exuded a steroid-like vibe. The sounds he makes may be able to move the Earth. It may incite a landslide. His tenor sax is as brawny as Sonny Rollins' sound, or Dexter Gordon's. And when he brings powerhouse trombonist reformist Michael Vlatkovich into the fold--a group tagged as the Rich Halley 4--the level of seismic output rises a few notches. A Distant Land, the group's eighth recording, stays in ...

Album Review

Benny Green: Renovation

Read "Renovation" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
September 16, 2026

There are pianists who play solo because they have something to prove, and then there are pianists like Benny Green, who have nothing to prove and regard the absence of a rhythm section as an invitation. On Renovation, his first live solo recording, Green seems to be enjoying himself. Most of these 13 performances were recorded before an audience at Dizzy's Club in New York City and have the immediacy of an artist thinking out loud, taking a musical idea ...

Album Review

Franklin Kiermyer: Scatter The Atoms That Remain

Read "Scatter The Atoms That Remain" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 16, 2026

Scatter The Atoms That Remain is a harrowing, yet affirming statement from drummer/composer Franklin Kiermyer. With a fine, fit, and hale conglomerate creating alongside him--drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, pianists Aaron Parks and Davis Whitfield, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, saxophonists Isaiah Collier and the ever-present Linda Sikhakhane, vocalists Jeff Bhasker, Jasbir Jassi, Melanie Charles and the Temitope Momorebe Gospel Singers, percussionist Carlos Niño, guitar synthesist Nate Mercereaux, and bassists Geraud Portal and Otto Gardner--Scatter The Atoms That Remain carries the free jazz ...